Vermont Gay Tourism Association targets a growing niche

Push for a landing page on state's tourism website sends message of 'inclusivity'

Jul. 18, 2013

Innkeepers Willie Docto (left) and Greg Trulson stand on the balcony of their new treehouse behind their B&B, Moose Meadow Lodge, in Duxbury on July 11. The interior is rustic, yet luxurious, and fits the bill for a new trend called glamping, or glamorous camping. / LYNN MONTY/Free Press

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Free Press Staff Writer

Guests often start their day by eating breakfast on the front porch. / LYNN MONTY/Free Press

For more information LGBT tourism in Vermont visit:• Vermont Gay Tourism Association at www.vermontgaytourism.com• LGBT Travel on the Official State of Vermont Tourism website at bit.ly/12wPZJJ To read Mark Bateman‘s blog, A Gay Traveler in Vermont, visit vermontgaytourism.com/wordpress

Guest Lorraine Martuscello of Dover, N.H., says goodbye to innkeeper Greg Trulson after a short stay at the lodge. / LYNN MONTY/Free Press

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Phones have been ringing off the hook at Moose Meadow Lodge in Duxbury since the Defense of Marriage Act was declared unconstitutional last month, allowing legally married same-sex couples to receive federal protections like Social Security, veterans’ benefits and health insurance.

In the days after the Supreme Court ruling, 10 gay couples booked weddings at the lodge, adding to the six that were previously scheduled.

“We never thought we would see the day,” lodge owner Greg Trulson said of the ruling. “We were dumbfounded. We cried.”

Trulson has owned and operated the 86-acre bed and breakfast with his partner Willie Docto for 15 years.

The ruling hasn’t changed the way they do business, Docto said. “But it has sparked a lot of gay couples to get married,” he said. “It’s great for the state. We get a lot of calls from Texas and Florida, where it is not legal.”

Same-sex marriage is legal only in 13 U.S states and the District of Columbia. Trulson, 59, and Docto, 51, were joined in civil union in 2001 and married in 2009 in Vermont.

With a mission to bring Vermont’s gay community closer together and to encourage tourism, Docto became an integral part of founding the Vermont Gay Tourism Association (VGTA) in 2003. Since then, he’s embarked on a mission to have the State of Vermont proactively reach out to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, and has succeeded.

Vermont is a dream wedding destination, even with couples who are allowed to marry in their home states, Docto said. “People feel comfortable coming to Vermont because we have the whole system down,” he said. “We are so networked here. We know how to do weddings.”

“Vermont is classy, but not stuffy. We offer quality,” Trulson added.

Docto said couples, and visitors in general, are also drawn to Vermont’s rural allure, getting closer to nature, and a new trend called glamping, a hybrid of the words glamorous and camping.

Glamping mixes rural surroundings and rustic accommodations with more than a hint of luxury. High in a tree behind Moose Meadow Lodge, luxury camping is at its best, complete with a queen-sized bed and Wi-Fi.

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The luxury treetop two-story digs went up last year. Yestermorrow, a design/build school in Warren, built the platform, and a teacher from the school, Eyrich Stauffer, of Stauffer Woodworking in Montpelier, built the rest.

Since its grand opening in June, five couples have stayed in the lofty lodging.

One couple even exchanged vows in the treehouse, officiated by Trulson, who is also a justice of the peace. About two dozen weddings are held at Moose Meadow Lodge annually. Ninety percent of those weddings are same-sex couples.

Trulson officiates about 60 weddings annually, half of them gay, he said.

Target marketing

Back in 2001, Docto recognized Vermont was losing the corner on the market for gay weddings.“Boston, Montreal, Provincetown … all of these communities around us have been doing this marketing for some time now,” Docto said. “The Vermont Department of Tourism was not interested in going after that market, but we as business owners saw it as a lost opportunity. We had to do something about it.”

Docto lobbied for a landing page on the website of the Vermont Department of Tourism to bring LGBT resources together in one location. “I met with the commissioner of tourism at the time, but my appeals were not effective,” Docto said. “It was a different time politically.”

Less than a decade later, and only two days after Gov. Peter Shumlin’s inauguration, Docto had a one-on-one meeting with the new governor about the importance of targeting this niche market.

Jen Butson, Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing director, said the LGBT information page was her first project when she was hired in 2012. “It’s work I’m mighty proud of,” she said.

Today, Butson also promotes LGBT events. Vermont Ski Areas Association and Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing are co-sponsoring the Family Week event from Aug. 3-10 in Provincetown, Mass. Organized by the Family Equality Council, the 18th annual Family Week is the largest national gathering of its kind.

“Once Gov. Peter Shumlin took office, Tourism and Marketing Commissioner Megan Smith and her staff immediately began partnering with us on promoting Vermont to the LGBT traveler,” Docto said.

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Docto was elected treasurer of the Waterbury Tourism Council in 2010, and was appointed by Shumlin to serve on the Vermont Travel & Recreation Council in 2012, and reappointed in 2013.

LoAnn Halden, media relations director for the International Gay and Lesbian TravelAssociation (IGLTA), said Vermont Gay Tourism Association is a longtime member and her group’s only LGBT U.S. state tourism association. “Typically you see cities with LGBT business chambers, not statewide, and not devoted just to LGBT tourism,” she said.

John Tanzella, the travel association’s president and CEO, said in an email that the association’s most successful members incorporate LGBT marketing into their outreach. “Inclusivity sends a powerful message,” he said. “We applaud the Vermont Gay Tourism Association for bringing the state to the next level as an LGBT welcoming destination.”

Catering to a growing niche

A recent addition to the gay tourism association’s website is blogger Mark Bateman, 42, of Montpelier. He’s new to Vermont, from New York City, and is touring the state and writing about what he finds at bed and breakfasts, spas, restaurants and more. The blog is called A Gay Traveler in Vermont.

Bateman said Vermont is progressive and welcoming in many ways, but compared to major metropolitan areas with defined hubs for gays and lesbians, Vermont can be a challenge. “We are more spread out across the state,” he said of Vermont. “There are no gay neighborhoods here, so we have a website, and now this blog, to bring us all together.”

In addition to Bateman’s blog, another association first was a mixer in St. Johnsbury. “We had a small but enthusiastic group at Bailiwicks On Mill in St. Johnsbury for the first-ever Vermont Gay Tourism Association mixer,” Docto said.

The gay tourism association started with less than 10 members 13 years ago and has now grown to about 80 members.

“We are seeing a lot more interest because it’s apparent we are offering an opportunity to reach a target market that is growing, and will continue to grow, especially with the Supreme Court ruling. As other states come on board the market is just going to get larger,” Docto said.

Trulson and Docto would like to see every state in the nation recognize gay marriage. “It’s going to take a long time,” Docto said. “But it’s going in the right direction. For the states who embrace it, it will be an economic boom.”